Page 45 of A Shade Too Far
I tensed my pelvic floor muscles with everything I had, because I would not humiliate myself by peeing in fear.
“No.” Zev picked a towel up off a chair and blotted the blood off his lips like was attending high tea.
I looked around, in case I’d missed someone asking a question, but that was apparently for me. “No, what?”
My voice was a tad squeakier than I’d have liked. I cleared my throat, but that made me taste all the blood and fear stinking up the air and I decided that squeaky me was A-okay.
“No,” he repeated. He checked the towel, then folded it and lay it back on the chair. “I will not give up the gloves. For any reason. Find another way.”
“Is that what this demonstration was about?” I clenched my fists. “Making your point about what will happen if I fail? You’re dangerous. Believe me, I understand. This wasn’t necessary.” I hung my head, overwhelmed by the overt violence when I was trying to save Tatiana. “It just wasn’t,” I repeated softly.
His eyes, when they raked over me, were cold and distant. “How very self-centered and human to assume this was for you.” He dusted off his hands. “It wasn’t. Now, I would suggest haste. Your dear Laurent cares for so few people in this world and one of them is in danger. Tatiana,” he added, in case I hadn’t gotten it.
Zev prodded the vampire whose guts he’d stomped on with one foot, careful to avoid the puddle of spewage. “What do you think will happen to the wolf if his family member is murdered? He lost himself once already and barely returned from the brink of being forever trapped in his animal side. Are you willing to gamble on his ability to do it a second time?”
The minion got to his feet, but remained bent double, clutching his belly. “Good—” He coughed, and more blood dribbled out. “Fight.”
Zev touched his shoulder. “You too.”
The vampire hobbled out of the room.
How did Zev know this about Laurent? Had he caused it? Did it have something to do with the scar he’d given the shifter? The vampire was right that I wouldn’t chance that happening, but everything else about this situation was wrong, and I resented the hell out of his emotional manipulation when there was an easy solution.
“Like you’re really concerned about that.”
“I treat everything as a concern,” Zev said. “That way I’m rarely surprised.” Control freak much? “What’s more relevant is that you worry about him. Your daughter, your ex, Jude, the wolf, how many more exploitable weaknesses will you add to your list?”
My magic swirled frenetically into a half-formed scythe. “Is that a threat or simply another concern?”
“Merely an observation.” He raised an eyebrow until I’d made the scythe vanish and clasped my shaking hands behind my back.
The vampire that had been stuck in the ceiling tore loose with a grunt and dropped to the ground. He bowed at Zev, uncaring of the shard of wood sticking out of one eye. “Good fight.”
Zev clasped his shoulder. “You too.”
Ceiling Vamp bowed again, then grabbed his buddy with the obliterated kneecap and the one with the gnawed-on tendon by their arms and dragged them from the room, leaving a bloody trail like slug slime.
Each of the other two croaked out “Good fight,” with their boss acknowledging them in turn.
I held the door open for them, my manners and the desire for fresh air kicking in. Ceiling Vamp nodded at me and all three left.
“Let me make this abundantly clear,” Zev said, “you will not let Tatiana die from the Pulsa diNura.”
There was some connection, some history, between the two of them. He called her Tanechka, and yet he valued a demon artifact over her life? Either he was fooling all of us with how important Tatiana was to him or those gloves mattered a hell of a lot more than I’d given them credit for. But which one was it?
I swallowed a few curses, forcing myself to adopt a pleasant tone. “I want to keep her alive as much as you do.” Or more, since I’m actually trying to do something about it, you ass. “Help me out here with somewhere to start. Please.”
If he said no one more time, I was going to lose my—
The vampire who’d hit the wall face-first slid off with a wet sucking noise.
My stomach lurched at the sight of his face, scrambled eggs forever off my menu.
Zev made a tutting noise.
Less than a minute later, BatKian’s vampire friend Yoshi opened the door and handed Zev a small vial of colorless liquid. Where Zev was a jungle cat, Yoshi was a willow tree, strong and lithe with a dancer’s grace.
“Thank you,” Zev said.
